Some Puck Junk in the Mail!

A few weeks ago I received another great package from Sal of Puck Junk. Sal is one of a couple of bloggers I randomly trade packages with without really keeping tabs. Every so often I'll accumulate enough cards to send off to him, and he does the same for me. It's a very loose, open trading arrangement that works well for me. Sal's packages are always great and this one was no exception. To fill space in the 400-count box he used this Coke can, which pays tribute to last season's Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks:

I think there were a couple of odd cards included, but the bulk of the box contained cards that did some serious damage to my Want List for 3 different sets. First up were 72 cards from the 1992-93 Upper Deck hockey set. I busted a wax box from both the high and low number series of this set and have been trying to finish it up for quite some time. I know it's from the junk wax era but I think it's a great set. Here are some highlights from what Sal sent:

The first 4 Upper Deck hockey sets (90-91 - 93-94) all used varying designs on a white bordered card. As usual, the photography is excellent.

I would say this Brian Propp card has the best photo of any card in this package. What a great picture!

The Russian Stars checklist shows 4 of said stars in front of the Kremlin in Moscow. Pretty unique for a checklist photo I guess.

Of the few Russian Stars cards in the package, Alexei Yashin is by far the most recognizable name. I think Upper Deck could've skipped this subset altogether and the set wouldn't have been any worse off for it.

Yanick passed away at age 24 in 1997 after a battle with leukemia. The American Hockey League now presents the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award each season for excellence in service to the local community.

Calder Memorial Trophy card of the Russian Rocket.

Some shameless self-promotion going on with this card...

I'm glad the Sabres have returned to these jerseys for the 2010-11 NHL season. It makes watching a (so far) horrendous team bearable.

I would never normally choose to display a Greg Paslawski card, but I like this one.

Yes, Young Guns rookies existed back in the early 90's as well, although they were part of the base set and not short-printed.

The last few cards in the base set are these pointless Profiles cards that show various players standing in front of their lockers in street clothes. I guess I'm happy to add another Fedorov to my collection though. That stack brought me to within 4 cards of completing this set! If anyone has an extra #176 (Paul Ysebaert), #490 (Glenn Mulvenna), #494 (Ryan McGill), or #498 (Patric Kjellberg) let me know! Also included in the package were a couple of inserts from the set:

Three of these AmeriCan hologram rookies, including Keith Tkachuk and...

Scott Niedermayer. I'm down to needing just one of these to complete this 6 card insert set.

This Gordie Howe Hockey Heroes insert is easily my single favorite card in this entire package. It commemorates Howe's return to hockey when he joined the New England Whalers of the WHA to play with his two sons, Mark and Marty.

Included were 43 cards off of my 1994-95 Upper Deck SP want list.





This guy just keeps going! He's now 40 years old, and at the time of this post is in the top 10 in the NHL in scoring, with 7 goals and 12 assists in 18 games. Pretty amazing.

Marc Savard rookie card. I wonder if he'll be back at all this year? It seems likely that it will happen in the next month or two, but who knows.

Another guy who's still kicking around the NHL with Carolina. Actually he's only 32 years old.

Finally, there were 18 cards I needed from the 2009-10 Upper Deck base set. The first three years after I got back into collecting I completed this. It was the base set I always wanted most because of the reasonable size for hand-collating and the excellent photography.

Last year my interest started to fizzle though. I reluctantly finished Series 1, and got a good chunk of Series 2 completed before I stopped caring altogether. This year I haven't purchased so much as a pack of the recently released Series 1, and I'm not sure I will bother to. Nonetheless, it bothers me that I never finished last year's set and these cards put me that much closer.

Thanks for another great box of cards Sal! Hopefully we can help each other out with Score next.